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WebMethods Acquires Cerebra

Cerebra offers a metadata repository that uses semantic technology-additional context about the data's meaning and usage. WebMethods will add this to its Fabric suite of software.

Entering the metadata technology market, WebMethods announced Aug. 21 the acquisition of Cerebra, a privately held company that develops metadata management software.

The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., Cerebra offers a metadata repository that uses semantic technology—additional context about the datas meaning and usage.

Often defined as the data about data, metadata has been a growing field—and concern—as companies delve deeper into the concepts of SOA (service-oriented architecture) and BPM (business process management).

"With each component of [a] process possessing its own rules, parameters and interrelationships, which frequently change based on a variety of circumstances, more complex processes simply break down due to the incompatibility of many of these interrelationships," said Marc Breissinger, WebMethods CTO, in a statement.

"When used to enrich a specific process semantic, metadata helps overcome inconsistencies by providing a higher level of agreement to meaning and intent.

"This allows for the richer orchestration of the transactions and interactions that fundamentally define the process."

In the case of orchestrating business processes, semantic information documents the interrelationships between IT assets—Web services, documents, business processes, governance policies and user profiles, for example.

The software discerns operational dependencies and then assesses the impact of prospective changes to process.

Cerebras software captures and defines the interrelationships and then establishes rules to govern and categorize meta data, according to WebMethods, in Fairfax, Va.

Cerebras software will be embedded as a repository in WebMethods Fabric suite of software that includes both BPM and integration capabilities, to help users better search and reuse IT assets, officials said.

The company will also look for opportunities OEM Cerebras software.

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